Artemisia Undaunted

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Arts Documentary hosted by Clive Rich, published by BSkyB broadcasted as part of BSkyB Masterpieces series in 2012 - English narration

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Artemisia Gentileschi was deemed the first woman to earn a living from art but was her work of fantasies of revenge the result of a troubled early life?

Artemisia Gentileschi is considered the first woman ever to make a living from art. The darling of feminist French historians, she triumphed in the early 17th century, an era dominated by masters like Rubens and Caravaggio and has since inspired three best-selling novels and a film.

Much of her art retells stories from the female perspective. In Susanna and the Elders, she twists the biblical story of the promiscuous Susanna to portray her cowering, naked and frightened beneath two older, conspiring men. Meanwhile, her multiple versions of Judith Slaying Holofernes reveal powerful protagonists beheading the invading general, while also capturing their fear and vulnerability.

Gentileschi was raped at the age of 17 by a friend of her father, encouraging many historians to believe that she relived the event repeatedly on her canvases, as well as painted out her fantasies of revenge against the male sex.

In this documentary, art historians, as well as Alexandra LaPierre, author of novel Artemisia, reflect on her works, questioning to what extent Gentileschi encapsulated her own life, fears and trauma within her art.